Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys Controversy - Fallout

Fallout

By April 2007, the apparent politicization of the Department of Justice, the influence of politics on the appointment of some of the U.S. Attorneys, and the alleged politically motivated prosecutions by some of the U.S. Attorneys began to affect cases of public corruption and voter fraud nationwide. According to the National Law Journal, "Just the appearance of political influence in cases related to those firings, combined with the recent, unusual reversal of a federal public corruption conviction in Wisconsin, some say, will spur aggressive defense lawyers to question the political motivation of prosecutors in certain cases; make magistrates and judges more skeptical of the evidence before them; and perhaps even chill line prosecutors in their pursuit of some indictments."

By mid-September 2007, nine senior staff of the Department of Justice associated with the controversy had resigned. The most prominent resignations include:

• Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
• Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty;
• Acting Associate Attorney General William W. Mercer resigned from the acting office prior to Senate confirmation hearings for the same position, and returned to his post as U.S. Attorney for Montana (he held dual positions);
• Chief of staff for the Attorney General Kyle Sampson
• Chief of Staff for the Deputy Attorney General Michael Elston;
• Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA) Michael A. Battle;
• the subsequently appointed Director to the EOUSA, Bradley Schlozman, also the former acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division;
• the Department of Justice's White House Liaison Monica Goodling

In June 2008, a grand jury was empaneled to consider criminal indictments against officials involved in the firings. The grand jury was presented evidence from ongoing investigations at the Department of Justice Inspector General's office and at the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility.